I was trying to find the right episode for the day before Halloween and I kept waiting for Zac to write something but turns out having another kid limits your episode writing so you are stuck with me. I wanted to find a dark twisted story about Halloween in a small town so settled with this story. If you don’t like it blame Zac. But I promise you it’s worth the listen as it’s one of the darkest stories I have ever read and I am not even going to tell you the worst parts. Happy Halloween let’s get into this dark and twisted story from the West Coast of our country. California. Multiple places in California. What are we talking about? Well if you read the title it’s the Halloween Murder by the Toolbox Killers.
Let’s jump into this Happy Halloween Megh.
The Toolbox Killers sounds as bad as it is. Well, actually it’s worse. There have been movies, books, documentaries you name it on these guys. If you haven’t heard of them let’s give a little back story on these guys and then talk about the Halloween Murder. Feel like that’s a good move right? Yeah.
Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris were just a couple of guys who were up to no good. Started making trouble in many neighborhoods. They killed a bunch of people and everyone was scared so they ended up in jail in the same state as Bel-Air. See what I did there.
Alright, The Tool Box Killers were two American serial killers and rapists who committed the kidnapping, rape, torture, and murder of five teenage girls in southern California over a five-month time frame in 1979. The crazy 70’s. So glad I wasn’t around then. Lawrence Bittaker was described by FBI agents and others as the most disturbing person they ever profiled. He was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in the 40s and spoiler alert went to jail and was actually sentenced to death for the 5 murders.
Norris testified against Bittaker and was sentenced to life in jail. You might be thinking why were they the Tool Box Killers? Well…the majority of instruments used to torture and murder their victims, such as pliers, ice picks, and sledgehammers, were items normally stored inside a household toolbox.
Bittaker like many serial killers didn’t have a great childhood. Born as the unwanted child of a couple that put him up for orphanage. Adopted by a family that moved a lot. He was a troubled youth stealing stuff a lot and building a criminal record. He was said to have an IQ of 138 and with a bright mind hated school and dropped out. After he drops out of school he steals a car, does a hit-and-run, evades arrest, and goes to the California Youth Authority until he is 18. His adoptive parents disown him and he's on his own.
Norris had another terrible childhood in and out of foster care in Colorado. He was neglected with not enough food and clothing. He was sexually abused which led to some tough times. He was beaten by his father at 16 for talking very badly to a female and he stole his father's care and drove to the Rocky Mountains where he attempted to commit suicide by injecting pure air into his arm. He also dropped out of school, joined the Navy, and served in the Vietnam War in 1969.
Both of these guys were in and out of jails in different states for several different crimes throughout the 60’s and 70’s. Bittaker was mostly a theft crime until it really escalated to attempted murder when a theft went wrong. Norris was mostly sexual assault crimes that started to turn very violent.
The two of them first met in 1977 at the California Men’s Colony. California Men's Colony is a male-only state prison located northwest of the city of San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo County, California, along the central California coast approximately halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Apparently, they became pretty close when Norris taught him how to make jewelry. Bittaker saved Norris from being attacked by fellow inmates on several occasions. They then unfortunately bonded over an interest in sexual violence. There are many disturbing details of how and why they became who they were but we are going to skip right over those.
Bittaker was released from the California Men's Colony on October 15, 1978, and got a job and worked hard. He was even known for being generous and helpful and donated money to The Salvation Army. He would buy large amounts of food and wine and would give them out to the homeless. Then he would gain popularity with the local teenagers because he always had booze and weed in his Burbank Motel room.
Three months after Bittaker was released from the California Men's Colony, on January 15, 1979, Norris was released from prison and moved into his mother's home in Redondo Beach. Within one month of his release, he had raped a woman whom he then simply abandoned in a desert. He soon found employment as an electrician in Compton. : 85 Shortly thereafter, he received a letter from Bittaker. In late February, the pair met at a hotel and rekindled their plan to kidnap and rape girls.
In order for the pair to abduct teenage girls, Bittaker decided they would need a van as opposed to a car. With financial assistance from Norris, Bittaker purchased a silver-gray 1977 GMC Vandura in February 1979. The vehicle was windowless on one side and had a large passenger-side sliding door. According to Bittaker, when viewing this sliding door, he realized he or Norris could "pull up [to a teenage girl] real close and not have to open the doors all the way."The pair would nickname this van "Murder Mac"
From February to June 1979, Bittaker and Norris picked up over twenty female hitchhikers. These were their practice runs.
June 24th, 1979 the first murder takes place. They kidnap a 16-year-old leaving a church meeting. The details that are released on this are again VERY disturbing so we are not going to get into them but just know that it’s terrifying. When the victim was murdered she was wrapped in a shower curtain and thrown over a steep canyon so as they said the animals would eat her up leaving no evidence.
Two weeks later another victim is taken an 18-year-old. More disturbing stuff happens and tools are used and again the body is tossed off a cliff.
September 3rd it happens again. This time two victims. One 13 and one 15. They fought back and fought hard and were held hostage for two days. The details and the things that happened seem to escalate and get more disturbing every single time. They then toss their bodies after being brutally murdered over an embankment.
The final victim happened on Halloween night in 1979. Sorry, it took so long to get there. A 16-year-old was taken as she stood outside a gas station while she was hitchhiking home from a Halloween Party. Apparently, she accepted the ride because Bittaker was a familiar face she saw at the restaurant where she was a waitress. The next two hours of the last of her life were some of the most cruel stuff I have ever read. Instead of being thrown over a cliff, they decided to toss the victim on a random lawn to see the reaction from the press. The remains were found by a jogger the next morning. In November of 1979, Norris started chatting with an old friend Joseph Jackson whom he met in the California Mens Colony. Norris told Jackson everything they had done in the previous 5 months. Jackson then tells his attorney who calls the police and shockingly initially Jacksons' statements didn’t match reports on file of girls who had been reported missing. They almost get away with it still. What linked them to the murders was a police report of an incident that these two did when they released a victim. The victim couldn’t identify them until she was presented with photos and was able to identify them.
Before they could arrest them over that they put Norris under surveillance within days they saw him selling drugs and arrested him for violating parole. They then get Bittaker for possession of drugs another parole violation. Still not able to arrest them for the murders through a police lineup the police searched Bittaker's apartment and saw Polaroid photos of missing girls. They then entered the van and saw more than anyone wanted to see.
Both of these men died of natural causes in jail.
The aftermath of this case tortured so many people. The worst case that anyone involved had and will ever see. The chief investigator of the murders committed suicide at 39 years old and in his note said that what they did was so haunting to him and feared for his life that they may be released and couldn’t take it.
The audio tapes from the recordings of these two violent acts are used in the FBI Academy to train and desensitize agents.
A real-life Halloween horror.
Hard to find a quote about this so just going to toss this one out here.
Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain. JK Rowling
Sources -
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Bittaker_and_Roy_Norris
https://www.wvnstv.com/digital-desk/infamous-halloween-murders/
https://www.suecoletta.com/toolbox-killers-true-halloween-nightmare/